EU calls for clemency for death row inmate, BJP protests
New Delhi (AsiaNews) – Hans-Gert Pottering, speaker of the European Parliament, raised the issue of clemency for Mohammad Afzal during an informal lunch with Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on ufficial visit in Europe. India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) immediately protested against what it described as a case of “gross interference” in India’s internal affairs.
Mohammed Afzal Guru was sentenced to death for his role in the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001, which left seven security agents dead. His execution was originally scheduled for October 20, 2006, but was postponed because he had applied for clemency and out of fear that his death might provoke protests in his home state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad took offence with the speaker Pottering’s request, asking where European lawmakers were when India’s parliament was attacked. Given the enormity of the crime, he called on Europe to respond accordingly.
EU officials downplayed the controversy, saying that the European Union has “always opposed the death penalty,” and does “not respond on a case to case basis.” What is more, since the death penalty has been abolished throughout the European Union, it is not unexpected that MEPs would ask India’s president for India to do the same.
A few days ago the European parliament in Strasbourg passed a motion inviting the European Union and its member states to ask the United Nations General Assembly to pass a universal moratorium on capital punishment.
Despite this controversy, President Kalam’s visit to Europe continued in a positive atmosphere. Mr Kalam said that the EU was an "inspirational model,” a crossroad for various religions, cultures and civilisations, comparable to India, which “has had this advantage of integration of minds for thousands of years,” and “which has over the years learnt to evolve and maintain a unique unity amongst diversity.”
In recalling his youth in his hometown of Rameswaram, in Tamil Nadu, where he saw a Hindu priest, a Christian pastor and a Muslim cleric meet to discuss and solve problems, he said that his country must now engage in a “dialogue of religions.”
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